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Belgrano II Base () is a permanent, all year-round
Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...
base and scientific research station named after General
Manuel Belgrano Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano (), was an Argentina, Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He to ...
, one of the Libertadores and the creator of the Argentine Flag. It is located on Bertrab Nunatak on the Confín Coast,
Coats Land Coats Land is a region in Antarctica which lies westward of Queen Maud Land and forms the eastern shore of the Weddell Sea, extending in a general northeast–southwest direction between 20°00′W and 36°00′W. The northeast part was discover ...
. it is Argentina's southernmost permanent base, the world's third furthest south permanent base, and the world's southernmost base built on solid rock, which makes it particularly suited for geological research. Belgrano II is one of 13 research stations in Antarctica operated by Argentina.


History

In 1955, then Brigade General Hernán Pujato founded the first Belgrano Base ( Belgrano I), which remained for years as Argentina's southernmost settlement. After 25 years of continuous activity, Belgrano I was closed due to the fast deterioration of the ice barrier it was sitting on; new, often hidden cracks and crevices endangered the on-duty personnel and material. In order to continue the scientific programs and keep Argentine presence in the area, and after careful studies on alternative locations done by the Argentine Army, it was decided to lay the new facilities on solid land. Amid the vast expanse of ice that covers the region, only two small masses of granite emerge: the Moltke and Bertrab
nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...
s, both first sighted and named by Filchner's expedition in 1912. Belgrano II was founded on 5 February 1979 over the latter, a
hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...
of permanently ice-free land. Also and despite being farther south and higher than Belgrano I, the climate was significantly milder. The unloading of the materials—equipment, tools and instruments, food and fuel—was conducted from the icebreaker ARA ''General San Martín''. The new housing facilities were a vast improvement over the previous base ones: since 1955, the men who wintered in the old Belgrano I Base were living inside tunnels dug in the ice, ice that was always moving slowly towards the sea and, as finally happened, would become a tabular
iceberg An iceberg is a piece of fresh water ice more than long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an i ...
drifting through the
Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...
. In its area of influence two Argentine-built refuges existed since long before: the ''Sargento Ayudante Cisterna'' y el ''Aviso ARA Comandante Zapiola'' shelters had been set up in January 1976. In addition to new instruments brought from the mainland, Belgrano II received all its scientific equipment transferred from Belgrano I. The LABEL laboratory (LAboratory BELgrano) was rebuilt demanding considerable effort. A new facility, the ''José Luis Sersic'' polar astronomical observatory and a satellite dish antenna for data transmission were also set up. On the morning of 10 September 2005 the main house was completely destroyed as a result of a fire caused by a heater malfunction. Personnel had to be distributed to other buildings and new food and clothes had to be brought from the mainland and airdropped as the fire had destroyed all the wintering elements. The construction of emergency facilities to solve the housing problem started in early 2006, This new building was planned in two stages with the first one (bathrooms, kitchen and bedrooms) being finished in 2006–07 and the second one (living room), in 2007–08. During the 2008–09 campaign the construction of a new main house began. It was completed during the 2009–10 campaign and was inaugurated on 25 May 2010. The new house has a covered area of about with more comfort and space for recreation: it is located on what was once the former home destroyed by fire. During the repairs of the Argentine Navy icebreaker ARA ''Almirante Irízar'' which is normally used to supply the base, the
Argentine Air Force The Argentine Air Force (, or simply ''FAA'') is the air force of Argentina and one of three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. In 2018, it had 13,837 military and 6,900 civilian personnel. FAA commander in chief is Brigadie ...
took over the task with airdrops by KC-130 Hercules aircraft in a non-stop flight from
Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital city, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, U ...
in Tierra del Fuego.


Historic site

A cross was erected in 1955 some north-east of Belgrano I and subsequently moved to Belgrano II in 1979. This has been designated a Historic Site or Monument, following a proposal by Argentina to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.


Description

Belgrano II is about from the
South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...
and from Ushuaia, the nearest port city. it is Argentina's southernmost permanent base, and the third further south permanent base in the planet. It is also the world's southmost base built on solid rock, which gives it unique advantages for seismological and geological research. As a result of its latitude, the summer day and winter night are four months long and the night sky often displays the ''aurora australis''. Belgrano II is composed of a dozen buildings stationed on the nunatak rock, spanning a total area of . Structures are mostly of composite panels covered by metal or
fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...
filled with polyurethane foam to provide adequate thermal insulation to resist low temperatures. Some of the facilities at the base are: main and personnel houses; emergency house/infirmary; airstrip; heliport; chapel; museum; radio station; meteorological station; power plant; vehicle fleet (several Tucker Sno-Cats and Yamaha VK-541
ski-doo Ski-Doo is a brand name of snowmobile manufactured by Bombardier Recreational Products (originally Bombardier Inc. before the spin-off). The Ski-Doo personal snowmobile brand is so iconic, especially in Canada, that it was listed in 17th pla ...
s); atmospheric research station; mechanical, carpentry and electricity workshop; general equipment and spare parts warehouses; and foodstuff deposits (also called GUM). The all-year capable airstrip is located on a
glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
southwest of the base. The one-bed infirmary is , attended by a doctor and a nurse. It has
x-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
and odontological facilities. Dug in the nearby ice, Belgrano II's
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows is the world's southernmost
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
church—in fact, it's the southernmost worship place of any religion. The general tasks of the base personnel are primarily of scientific research, survey and exploration, also providing support for foreign scientific efforts. Other common duties are shelter maintenance, search and rescue, medical, communications and weather forecast support to expeditions, bases, ships and aircraft, both local and foreign.


Scientific activity

The following research programs are run at LABEL: *
Meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...
forecast * Atmospheric
ozone Ozone () (or trioxygen) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , break ...
research with high altitude probes and a Brewer spectrophotometer from the
World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...
, a joint program with
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
; and EVA IFAR spectrophotometer, a joint program with INTA in
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
* Astrolabel, through
optical telescope An optical telescope gathers and focus (optics), focuses light mainly from the visible spectrum, visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnification, magnified image for direct visual inspection, to make a photograph, or to co ...
, an agreement with the Astronomical Observatory of Córdoba) *
Solar radiation Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically p ...
and energy resources study through the local satellite station transmitting data in real time; since February 1998 a geodetic GPS receiver and seismological recording station have been installed through a joint program with the Alfred Wegener Institute of
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
; * Seismography, operating the world's southernmost seismograph over firm rock * Analysis of
Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from structure of Earth, Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from ...
variations * Ionospheric and aurorae sounding research in cooperation with Italy * Riometry, cosmic noise analysis * Bird monitoring and nesting patterns *
Geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...
, through GPS and a Doris beacon Although maintained by the Argentine Armed Forces, as all Argentine bases on Antarctica, it is operated by the civilian agency Argentine Antarctic Institute. , the base has a 19 men crew two of whom are Air Force meteorologists, three are Argentine National Antarctic Directorate civilian researchers and the rest is Argentine Army personnel in charge of operating the base.


Climate

The Belgrano II base has a coastal-influenced
ice cap climate An ice cap climate is a polar climate where no mean monthly temperature exceeds . The climate generally covers areas at high altitudes and Polar regions of Earth, polar regions (60–90° north and south latitude), such as Antarctica and some of ...
. The area is a passage of weather fronts directed towards the north: although they do not precipitate, they do produce strong winds exceeding which radically increase the chill factor. Mean monthly temperatures range from in July, the coldest month to in January, the warmest month. During summer, the average high is while the average low is . In winter, the average high and low are and respectively. During the polar night, a lot of aurorae can be observed. Snowfall occurs throughout the year; on average, there are 143 days with snow. January to April are the snowiest periods of the year with each month receiving 13 to 14 days with snow.


See also

*
Argentine Antarctica Argentine Antarctica ( or ) is an area on Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its national territory. It consists of the Antarctic Peninsula and a triangular section extending to the South Pole, delimited by the 25th meridian west, 25 ...
* List of Antarctic research stations * List of Antarctic field camps


References


External links


Fundaciòn Marambio – Base Belgrano II

Dirección Nacional del Antártico
* {{Antarctica Belgrano II Populated places established in 1979 Historic Sites and Monuments of Antarctica Coats Land 1979 establishments in Antarctica